The Pursuit of Happyness
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| The Pursuit of Happyness | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical poster for The Pursuit of Happyness |
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| Directed by | Gabriele Muccino |
| Produced by | Will Smith Steve Tisch Teddy Zee Todd Black Jason Blumenthal |
| Written by | Steven Conrad |
| Starring | Will Smith Jaden Smith Thandie Newton Brian Howe James Karen Dan Castellaneta Kurt Fuller Scott Klace |
| Music by | Andrea Guerra |
| Cinematography | Phedon Papamichael |
| Editing by | Hughes Winborne |
| Release date(s) | December 15, 2006 |
| Running time | 117 minutes |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Official website | |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Pursuit of Happyness is an Academy Award-nominated 2006 drama film produced by Overbrook Entertainment, Escape Artist, and Relativity Media, and released by Columbia Pictures on December 15, 2006. While it is based on the true story of Christopher Gardner, a family man struggling to make ends meet, the film takes some liberties with Gardner's actual story. Starring Will Smith as Chris Gardner and Smith's real-life son Jaden Christopher Syre Smith as Gardner's son Christopher, The Pursuit of Happyness follows Gardner's struggles to break into the stock brokerage business as an intern, despite a rocky financial situation. The film was directed by Gabriele Muccino, an Italian director making his English-language directorial debut.
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[edit] Production notes and reception
Thandie Newton and Dan Castellaneta also star in the film as Linda Gardner and Alan Frakesh respectively. Smith insisted that Italian Gabriele Muccino direct this movie because of Muccino's style in movies such as L'ultimo bacio and Ricordati di me.
The film uses real "street people" and real Glide church members and attendees as extras in some of the scenes featuring the church. The church choir and band, The Glide Ensemble and the John Turk Change Band, may also be in the film. The Glide Ensemble soloists and band are professional performers.
The Pursuit of Happyness garnered mixed reviews from critics with a 66% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, although Michael Medved gave Pursuit of Happyness four stars (out of four) saying "..not even the most jaded movie goers will be able to resist this film's emotional pull with an ultimately inspiring message about the implacable power of love and determination." [1] Jaden Smith in particular has been praised, due in part to "his natural, low-key quality" that is "both astounding and moving."[2] The film debuted at number-one at the box-office, making $27 million during its opening weekend and beating out such heavily-hyped films as Eragon and Charlotte's Web. It was Will Smith's sixth number-one opening in a row. It has made $162,587,000 as of 3/29/07.
Sloan Freer, writing in the Radio Times (UK) gave it 3/5 stars (equivalent to "good" where 5 represents "outstanding"), by noting that although the acting belies "understated restraint", from Smith and his son in particular, actually watching the film as a detached onlooker is harrowingly distressing because the suffering of Smith's character is happening to "such a decent man". The review concludes that despite its faultless writing and execution, the film needed to be a little less agonising to sit through, as experiencing the sheer harshness of Gardner's life detracts from the evocation of his evident strength of will.
[edit] Trivia
- Speedcubing champions Tyson Mao and Toby Mao were hired as consultants to teach Will Smith how to solve a Rubik's Cube in two minutes.
- In an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Will Smith's character gained the attention of a Princeton University recruiter by quickly solving a Rubik's Cube . Will Smith always had interest in speed-cubing and continues to practice[citation needed].
- The Rubik's Cube in the film incorrectly depicts the Rubik's Cube manufactured in 1981. One can tell this by the black-and-white, logo "Rubik's Cube" located on the white, vinyl center-sticker of the white face (vinyl is no longer used for the stickers).
- Will Smith actually grew the moustache he has in the film.
- Dan Castellaneta, who voices Homer Simpson on The Simpsons, co-stars in the film as one of Gardner's superiors and requests a donut from Gardener. This is a nod to Casellaneta's animated counterpart who shares a similar taste for donuts.
- Tyler MacNiven makes an uncredited guest appearance as the male hippie who stole one of the bone density scanners.
- At the very end of the film, the real Christopher Gardner does a cameo in which he walks between the camera and Smith, the latter doing a double-take over his shoulder at him.
- Throughout the film, Will Smith's character is often shown on the BART system, but even though the train network opened on September 11, 1972, it was not yet fully built out in its present form in the year the movie was set, 1981 (although at that time, all of the main BART subway lines within the cities of San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley were in daily revenue service).
- In the film, Will Smith's character compares Dean Witter with Morgan Stanley, saying that the former is superior. In 1997, Morgan Stanley acquired Dean Witter and the two merged.
[edit] Differences between the film and actual events
- Linda never existed. She is an amalgamation of Gardner's two previous wives.
- Chris Jr. was only 2 years old at the time of the events of this film. In an interview on Oprah, he states that he has no recollection of this time period in his childhood. The only thing he does remember is his father always being there for him.
- The Rubik's cube incident never happened. Smith came up with that idea, because he has always been fascinated with Rubik's cubes.
- Chris Gardner never had a suitcase, but kept all his items within disposable plastic bags.
- Gardner's internship was paid a $1000 a month stipend.
- He spent 10 days in jail for not paying his parking tickets.
- He eventually started at Bear Stearns.
- He sometimes spent the night underneath his desk when the shelters were full.
- In the movie Gardner states that he is from Louisiana, but Gardner is actually from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. However, Gardner's book indicates that his father resided in Louisiana at that time.
[edit] Awards/Nominations
- Academy Awards
- Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role (Will Smith) - Nomination
- Black Reel Awards
- Best Film- Nomination
- Best Actor (Will Smith)- Nomination
- Best Breakthrough Performer (Jaden Smith)- Nomination
- Broadcast Film Critics Association
- Best Actor (Will Smith) - Nomination
- Best Younger Actor (Jaden Smith) - Nomination
- Golden Globe Awards
- Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama (Will Smith) - Nomination
- Best Original Song ("A Father's Way") - Nomination
- Image Awards
- Outstanding Motion Picture- Winner
- Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture (Will Smith)- Nomination
- Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture (Jaden Smith)- Nomination
- Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture (Thandie Newton)-Nomination
- Screen Actors Guild Awards
- Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role (Will Smith) - Nomination
[edit] References
- ^ Michael Medved. Audio review of The Pursuit of Happyness. Retrieved on 2006-12-18.
- ^ Oscar pursuit of Jaden Smith would be natural by Claudia Puig, USA Today, December 22, 2006 section E1
[edit] External links
- Official site
- The Pursuit of Happyness at the Internet Movie Database
- The Pursuit of Happyness at Rotten Tomatoes
- Pursuit of Happyness review at Premiere Magazine's site
- The Pursuit of Happyness at The-Numbers
- The Pursuit of Happyness Reviews at Metacritic
- The Pursuit of Happyness premiere in San Francisco on Sidewalks Entertainment
- Chris Gardner has pursued happyness, from the Glide soup kitchen to the big screen at San Francisco Chronicle
- Film Review: Pursuit of Happyness at Full Effect
- The Pursuit of Happyness review by Max Raskin of LewRockwell.com
- A Look at the Film by Film Perspective
